[The Great Satan]

Asimov left three volumes of memoirs, which I highly recommend. Here is Asimov on Old Age, from I. Asimov:

Ogden Nash wrote a line that I have always remembered: "The old men know when an old man dies."

With the years this line has become ever more poignant to me. After all, an old person to one who has known him a long time is not an "old person" but is much more likely to be thought of as the younger person who inhabits our memory, vigorous and vibrant. When an old person dies who has been a part of your life, it is part of your youth that dies. And though you survive yourself, you must watch death take away the world of your youth, little by little.

There may be some morbid satisfaction to being a survivor, but is it so much better than death to be the last leaf on the tree, to find yourself alone in a strange and hostile world where no one remembers you as a boy, and where no one can share with you the memory of that long-gone world that glowed all about you when you were young?

[WillaJohns]

Incredible. Thank you for posting this excerpt. It makes me want to read more.

[luvbach1]

Asimov left three volumes of memoirs, which I highly recommend. Here is Asimov on Old Age, from I. Asimov: I see what you mean, ah yes.

[RLK]

And though you survive yourself, you must watch death take away the world of your youth, little by little. There may be some morbid satisfaction to being a survivor, but is it so much better than death to be the last leaf on the tree, to find yourself alone in a strange and hostile world where no one remembers you as a boy, and where no one can share with you the memory of that long-gone world that glowed all about you when you were young?

---------------------------

One of the greatest and most sorrowful lessons I have learned with advancement of age is that you lose people, times, and places. Even those people you knew who do not die are so changed that they no longer exist.

[Scully]

With the years this line has become ever more poignant to me. After all, an old person to one who has known him a long time is not an "old person" but is much more likely to be thought of as the younger person who inhabits our memory, vigorous and vibrant. When an old person dies who has been a part of your life, it is part of your youth that dies. And though you survive yourself, you must watch death take away the world of your youth, little by little.

There may be some morbid satisfaction to being a survivor, but is it so much better than death to be the last leaf on the tree, to find yourself alone in a strange and hostile world where no one remembers you as a boy, and where no one can share with you the memory of that long-gone world that glowed all about you when you were young?

Oh I don't know, LarryLied...this beautiful bit of creativity suggests that Asimov did indeed learn a few things in his lifetime.